Welcome to Week 2 of Canberra Playbook.
If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter, you can sign up free here.
ESSENTIALS
- Bumper night tonight on ABC (featuring Barnaby Joyce and lobbyists)
- National Cabinet Agenda revealed
- AI “super users” tend to be late career employees
DRIVING THE DAY
CABINET IS IN PERTH TODAY: Everyone’s job is to pretend the WA GST deal is good macroeconomics. Chin up, Jim Chalmers, you can do it! The Prime Minister did this at a Labor fundraiser Sunday night hosted by Roger Cook.
NATIONAL CABINET AGENDA: Taking place Wednesday, the agenda seen by Playbook doesn’t include GST revenue splits or NDIS reform implementation. Instead it’s:
1. National AI Standards
2. National Firearms Reform
3. Ending Gender-Based Violence
4. Fuel Supply Update
5. H5 Avian Influenza Update
And Queensland Premier David Crisafulli will fight Anthony Albanese over AI frameworks on Wednesday, The Australian reported this morning. He wants mandatory local consultation on data centers, protection of water supply and no requirement that the center be run on renewable energy. Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the Albanese government would consider using constitutional powers to override Queensland’s objections.
POPCORN ALERT: One Nation’s star recruit Barnaby Joyce is the subject of tonight’s Australian Story, 8.00 pm AEST on ABC — preview here. If you tune in, you might want to stick around for …
LOBBYISTS BACK IN THE CROSSHAIRS: Four Corners will tonight examine a system that sees politicians outnumbered in Parliament by those trying to influence, 8:30 p.m. AEST on ABC. We cover the new lobbying registration system lower down, including the new $140 fee for registering for a lobbyist badge to access Parliament unescorted.
Rule of Threes: ABC’s 7.30 Report host Sarah Ferguson is under fire in The Australian for failing to disclose an outside executive producing role for two years.
BY THE NUMBERS
ONE NATION’S MIGRATION CONFUSION: David Farley came across as a credible new MP in his Insiders appearance Sunday — but didn’t dispel the question of why he’s even in One Nation. His migration messaging suggests there’s little difference between government migration projections for 2026-2027 (about 230,000 net overseas migration, or NOM) and One Nation’s policy.
By the NOMbers: Farley referred to the party’s migration target (130,000) as “true NOM,” and then reeled off a list of migration agreements that wouldn’t be included in that number, such as PALM and backpacker visas. In that approach, One Nation would be advocating higher migration than the government projects, possibly up to 260,000. That would be getting close to the most recent official NOM count of 306,000.
Pauline Hanson was cleaning up the confusion on socials.
NOM-inal control: Remember when the Coalition got in trouble for being unable to distinguish permanent migration (a target which the government has some control over) from NOM (notoriously difficult to control because it includes working holiday makers and depends on number of departures)?
TEN INVESTIGATIONS, ONE REPORT: Rick Morton has examined the National Anti-Corruption Commission’s tendency to finalize investigations but not publish investigation reports, for The Saturday Paper.
NACC “finalized” ten investigations in the 2024-25 financial year, per its annual report, but only released one investigation report. In some cases the body appears to be splitting hairs over what is “finalized” vs. “completed” to avoid reporting obligations, Morton reported.
PARLIAMENT’S LOBBYIST TAX
Lobbyists are now required to hand over $140 in order to stalk the halls of Parliament House, as part of changes to the sponsored pass system introduced back in June, reports Miriam Webber.
The new system requires two parliamentarians to sign your form for access. The Department of Parliamentary Services told Playbook the fee relates to “the increased volume of sponsored cards issued.” The fee does not apply to advocacy and community groups.
Orange pass holders have until Oct. 31 to reapply, and you will be added to the federal lobbyist register, which also enforces a code of conduct.
The government claims the changes go “beyond any measures implemented since the opening of [today’s] Parliament House over 35 years ago.”
Playbook hears: The reapplication process is painful — lobbyists are placing multiple calls to DPS but getting no sense given of when applications will be processed. If you know more, you know how to reach us.
Did you know? 42 percent of all the lobbyists on that register are former government representatives, per the Attorney General’s register.
Yes, but: Most lobbyists won’t make it onto the register, because they work in-house. A previous estimate said the register only captured 20 percent of Australia’s lobbyists.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
CARNEY BUCKS TRUMP, AGAIN: “They asked too much and offered too little,” Carney said over the weekend, applying retaliatory tariffs after Trump reintroduced 50 percent tariffs on a range of Canadian goods.
Inside the 72 hours that cratered the deal.
TRUMP IS FIGHTING HIS TRADE WAR ON A SKELETON ARMY: The U.S. Trade Representative’s office is attempting to manage an expansive tariff agenda with its smallest staff in two decades. That’s creating legal risks and unintended consequences.
DEMOCRATS LOOK TO INVESTIGATE TRUMP’S CRITICAL MINERALS DEALS: POLITICO’s Hannah Northey and James Bikales report that Democrats angling to take back Congress want deep investigations into President Donald Trump’s ever-expanding critical mineral spending spree — and the industry is taking note.
Action alert: Australian business leaders considering financing packages — in some cases over $1 billion — will need to decide whether they want to sign up for possible congressional scrutiny that could put their companies under a microscope.
Trump earlier this month unveiled more than $3 billion in federal backing for a slew of projects, adding to the some 160 deals that Trump said the administration has struck.
Investigations are also percolating in the Senate, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and others circling around Cantor Fitzgerald and Oklahoma-based USA Rare Earth, which recently closed a $1.3 billion government loan.
THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW
JOHN ROESE — “IT’S GOING TO WORK OUT, BUT IT REQUIRES A LOT OF THOUGHT”
The DELL Technologies Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief AI Officer spoke to Ryan Heath about the trials of AI regulation and what not to worry about.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
What AI mistake should regulators avoid?
You can’t regulate the technology. If you specify technology under AI regulation, by the time you publish, it’s not the same technology. But you can regulate behavior and intent.
You don’t have to agree with us, but you do need to be very close to the practitioners.
Coordinated governance at the national level is essential: I have over a thousand jurisdictions around the world telling me what to do. They never talk to each other.
Where is your head at, on AI and jobs?
We are doing a terrible disservice talking about AI and its intersection with jobs. Agents don’t do jobs, they do work.
Every job in the world — we looked at 6,400 — contains work that shouldn’t be done by humans anymore. There are no jobs that will not be disrupted, but very few jobs completely go away.
[But] if we repurpose people to the wrong jobs or we do nothing, it gets very ugly. It’s going to work out, but it just requires a lot of thought.
What does that mean for people reading this interview?
Expert level work continues to be a human thing, it gets redefined. Interaction with people becomes a bigger and bigger piece of the human job.
Should we change how we talk about agents?
Using phrases like, “an agent is a digital worker” — people hate it. Putting an agent in your org chart is the equivalent of putting a word processor in your org chart.
What’s coming next?
The next five years are gonna be characterized by the digitization of work, not the replacement of jobs. Governments around the world as part of their sovereign strategy will all have digital skills and skills transformation policies.
Most people are stuck in thinking AI equals chatbots.
Exactly [and it’s not true]. Take hygiene agents: this is high autonomy, low complexity, boring work. There’s no human associated with them, and they just do boring work that people should be doing that they aren’t. The first one we built simply cleans up our CRM database.
It’s boring, it’s not the Terminator.
Is that where the value comes from?
We have a term we use internally, called an AI super user. We created a culture that encouraged experimentation [with AI] and what we saw was the emergence of people that became hyperproductive.
They all had the same tools, but certain people would suddenly operate an order of magnitude better. Once you find them, you have to study them.
The average demographic of a super user was late in career. We found knowing the tool is half of the problem. Knowing what problem to solve is the other half, which is fairly deep institutional knowledge.
For us, the goal is: create as many super users as possible. I think it will shape how we actually shift our workforce.
Your 2026 AI “word of the year” was governance. What will it be in 2027?
It’s probably going to be “jobs.”
WHILE WE HAVE YOU
We’ve heard that Playbook is not accessible on Department of Defence computers. If you know someone in the department who should have seen this warning to defense bureaucrats from shadow defence minister James Paterson, please text or email them the link.
CANBERRA MEETS WORLD
BEIJING SEIZED ANU ACADEMIC PASSPORTS: The incident occurred in 2024, Natasha Bita reported for The Australian. ANU continued a flagship Joint Science College with Shandong University for another two years, until the Australian government last week ordered the joint venture shut down.
ANU under the microscope: ANU’s Lesley Seebeck gives the Chancellor role some forensic examination, laying out the ways new Chancellor Gordon de Brouwer might be squeezed by the federal government, which unlike other universities, controls the institution.
THE AUSTRALIAN-BORN UK MP REVIVING THE FIGHT FOR ASSISTED DYING: Melbourne’s Lauren Edwards, now a U.K. Labour MP, is restarting a stalled process to legalize assisted dying in England and Wales — and she’s taking inspiration from Australia, POLITICO’s Noah Keates reports.
Edwards argues her legislation is “preferable and has stronger safeguards” than Australian systems — unbearable suffering is not a criterion for eligibility in her bill. MPs passed fellow Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill last year by 314 votes to 291. It failed to become law after delays in the House of Lords.
ICYMI: PUTIN TAKES AIM AT AUKUS, from Latika Bourke.
EMBASSY ROW
FAREWELL, HELLO: EU ambassador Gabriele Visentin has his farewell drinks Tuesday before wrapping up work Aug. 28. We’re getting ready to welcome his replacement, Lawrence Meredith from Ireland, who is currently the EU ambassador to New Zealand.
STATE OF THE NATION
ACT JOINS GUN BUYBACK SCHEME: The Commonwealth will fund 75 percent of the compensation and administration costs of the scheme and all firearm destruction costs for the ACT (for NSW a 50/50 split was agreed). There are about 23,000 licensed firearms in the Territory.
Around 1,000 license holders will be affected by a proposed ACT firearms cap.
NATIONAL CABINET
JONNO-ING FORCES: Labor and the Coalition could soon reach consensus on proposed benchmarks for AI, on the national cabinet agenda for Wednesday, Paul Sakkal reported.
Opposition spokesperson for home affairs, Jonno Duniam, told the SMH it’s “essential that the parties of government work together” against any potential campaign by One Nation against data centers.
One important sticking point is a feud over the use of fossil fuels to power data centers, which give firms such as Google, Anthropic and ChatGPT computing power to respond to searches, create new models, and produce videos.
Data center wars: Labor-led Victoria — when not caught up in political turmoil — has been making a bid to win data center investment. The Coalition wants to make NSW state the AI capital of the southern hemisphere.
PARTY ROOM
ONE NATION
Slick team shapes up: Will Glasgow reports Chris Taylor’s getting rave reviews as Hanson’s new chief of staff. He’s joined in the Canberra operation by Maxwell Pryor (ex-Australian Banking Association), but spokesperson Richard Henderson is shifting to Cory Bernardi’s team in the South Australian parliament.
“Please Explain” is back with new episode: The video series remains world-class political messaging.
Tony Abbott joins Pauline Hanson … in court: Hanson wants the High Court to overturn her racial vilification conviction. And the man who triggered her 2003 prison sentence for electoral fraud (now president of her chief rival party) is siding with her. Poor Angus.
ICYMI: Hanson has also been subject to death threats.
LIBERALS
Tony and Michaelia take Dorothy Dixers on tour: The Opposition doesn’t get Dorothy Dixers in the Parliament’s chambers. So they’re inventing the X version. Such as Sen. Michaelia Cash asking Abbott why Australian values matter.
Andrew Bragg issues annual report on himself: Another week, another innovation from the NSW Senator. It’s more back-slap than 360-degree assessment.
Practical Magic — Tim Wilson’s AI workshop: Small businesses in Wilson’s electorate of Goldstein will be getting day-to-day tips from Google on how to integrate AI into their workflows.
CROSSBENCH
Secret ballot for AI committee: A name will be drawn out of a hat when Parliament returns next month, unless two candidates withdraw. We’re told independent Sen. David Pocock, Greens Sen. David Shoebridge and United Australia Party Sen. Ralph Babet have put their hands up.
AGENDA ASSISTANT
The Education and Employment Legislation Committee will hear from unis and peak bodies including Universities Australia and The Group of Eight in a public hearing on the Universities Accord Bill (from Canberra).
Several committees are on tour this week:
Queenscliff (Victoria): Community and heritage groups will give evidence on Defence estate management in a public hearing of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee (from Queenscliff Town Hall).
Brisbane: Groups including the Queensland Council of Unions and Multicultural Australia will speak to the Joint Standing Committee on Migration as it continues an inquiry into the value of skilled migration to Australia.
Launceston: Standing Committee on Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport will hear from Tasmanian councils for its inquiry into local government funding.
Adelaide: Community Affairs References Committee is running two inquiries. One probe into the Support from Home Program; and another will hear from epilepsy expert and advocacy groups.
Amplify Alliance will host an off-the-record session with Greens senator David Shoebridge for rising Gen Z and Gen Y leaders in the not-for-profit space. The ticketed event is scheduled for 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at East Hotel in Canberra.
Former minister for communications Paul Fletcher will give opening remarks at the International Institute of Communications “Secure and Sovereign?” event in Melbourne, starting from 5:30 p.m.
NSW Minister for Skills Steve Whan will give the keynote address at the National Skills Week 2026 NSW conference in Sydney.
AFTER HOURS
PROUD PARENT: If you follow Greens Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young on social media, you’ll be aware Kora Young has released her first single — PTSD — on Spotify. You might not have realized that’s her daughter! You can listen here.
COMMUNITY CORNER
PLAYBOOK FEEDBACK
Former submarine commander Rear Admiral Peter Briggs responded to POLITICO’s interview with Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy.
“Minister Conroy is misinformed on both counts regarding Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) submarine propulsion. Contrary to his claims, LEU-powered submarines do not require a return to France for reactor refuelling, nor is the process an insurmountable operational hurdle. France’s Marine Nationale routinely conducts mid-life refuelling during standard 10-year Full Cycle Dockings (FCDs), completing the entire overhaul in under 18 months via designed-in casing hatches. These refuellings could easily be performed locally in Australia.”
Briggs’ full reply is on Malcolm Turnbull’s Substack page.
MEA CULPA: The editor-in-chief of the Saturday Paper is of course, Erik Jensen.
LOCAL CANBERRA
RIDE FOR FREE! Steve Evans reports that in two years of the tap and go MyWay+ system, not a single fine has been issued in the ACT for fare evasion. That’s easier to do on the tram than bus, because there’s no passing by a driver to get on.
EXPRESS YOURSELF: Federal departments have started their annual bidding war for new graduates. And, like everyone else, they’re determined to hook you in five seconds. Here’s the Education effort.
RESTRAINT OF TRADE? Journalists are able to buy merch — we’re talking cufflinks, wine glasses et al — from the Senate merch shop, but not the House of Representatives.
Said one reporter: “I’m a big nerd. I want the merch. Let me at it.”
We looked into the complaint, and “journalist” is not a protected attribute in Australia (just a subsidized one, if you’re lucky enough to negotiate a News Bargaining Incentive deal). Because refusing to sell you wine glasses does not prevent you from working as a journalist or earning an income, there’s no legal case here.
MOVE OVER ONZIEME: Bar Nova opens this Wednesday, putting a new spin on the popular Kingston dining corner.
HIRING
Anthropic is looking for a community engagement manager on data centers, based in Australia. (h/t to Cam Wilson for spotting it first). More details here.
The Australian Antarctic Division is looking for someone to head its assets and infrastructure branch. More details here.
JOIN THE CYBER RESERVE FORCE: Cyber professionals have a new opportunity to contribute directly to Australia’s national security through a new specialist workforce shipping skills into the Defence Department.
MOVES
Ed Cavanough has switched roles to be Head of Policy at The McKell Institute.
Manohar Thyagaraj is now Head of Strategy and Government Relations at Austal.
Lizzie Butterworth is the new CEO of the Australian Festival Association.
Tammy Shipperley is now senior media officer at the Australian Land Conservation Alliance.
Adam Pullman has been promoted to assistant secretary for armoured fighting vehicles at Defence.
Keara Shaw is now an assistant secretary of policy and program management at DFAT.
Geoff Cousins is trying to unseat Woolworths chair Scott Perkins.
ANNIVERSARIES
60 YEARS SINCE WAVE HILL WALK-OFF: Vincent Lingiari and more than 200 Gurindji, Mudburra and Warlpiri people stood up and claimed their rights 60 years ago Sunday, initiating strike action that paved the way for the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.
BIRTHDAYS
Belated wishes for Lynton Crosby, former MP and CEO of the Night Time Industries Association, Paul McLeay, and comms consultant Kate Scanlon, formerly of Allens and the RBA who all celebrated Sunday; and James Massola for Friday.